167 Rane of Aniss
by Ember Nickel
Summary: I mean days. Does Rane translate as feeding cycles? And after all the trouble my parents went through to sign me up for Galard lessons...This is set in the 2020s of Earth. It is not a love story.
1. 1

My name is Efdram Gonzalez.

It was a little after midnight. Maybe more like one. Or, possibly two. I...wasn't really sure. I had no need to keep track of time—it was Friday night, well, Saturday morning, and I was going strong. There was still half a pizza propped open next to me, and another thing of pop open on the other side, so I could've kept going for another hour easy.

Hey, shut up. Just because I wasn't getting absolutely plastered doesn't mean I was some kind of nerd. So what if I stay up and code my own stuff? I'm not doing school junk, and maybe I'll be able to profit from it. Someday.

Besides, the only real party was at X-House. My mom had totally hinted I should go when she saw the fliers on move-in day. I kind of shrugged, saying something about they got dumb and wild so it probably wasn't worth my time. No need to tell her how reej the X-House kids were.

Anyway, the code was being dumb, and I was trying to fix it when I got bipped. Scott. Of course. "Hey," he grinned.

No need to fullscreen, or even turn on my own webcam for that matter "Morning, dude."

"Hey," he repeated. "So I'm at X-House. You wanna come drive me back."

"No," I said shortly.

"Ooh, did I interrupt some breakthrough inna works?"

"No," I repeated, "just...don't see the need to be your own personal chauffeur."

"Hey, cool it buddy. Whatever."

I sighed. "It's really not that far."

"Yeah, who was the one who gotta car for the thing?"

"Me. For myself."

He kind of blinked. That wasn't good, ish. If he wasn't even going to think of a comeback, he was probably not in a good place. "Kay, whatever, gimme a minute."

Blah blah blah, I drove over, and there was Scott on the front porch. In shorts and a tank top. Gotta love California. Behind him, a tall girl was heading back inside, clutching a red cup. "Wait, you're going back for more?" a shorter girl next to her giggled. "I thought you were throwing up in the bathroom?"

"You underestimate me," she grinned.

"Great company you keep, Scott," I smiled. "Get in the car already."

"Hey, this is X-House. They're your crew."

"Whatever, and if you don't get in the stupid car I'll kick you out of my crew."

"All right, all right," he said, and he got in the stupid car and we went back.


	2. 18

"Do you ever, like, wanna go to a movie sometime?"

Aniss laughed. "I don't like movies that much. Sorry."

"No, that's...I mean, whatever. Bowling? Do you do bowling?"

"Never been."

"All right. Well, I mean, if you're ever up for it sometime."

"Look. Efdram. I like you. I...like you a lot." Gulp. This was good. "I just...I mean, I don't really do boyfriends."

"Beram?" I blurted.

She laughed. No, she wasn't mad at me at all—that was probably good. "Beram...I think it's thanks to him I'm not gonna do boyfriends for a while. I...I'm still so angry at him, for what he did to me, but it's just...complicated, and I can't commit to anything just yet."

I didn't really know how it could be complicated, but maybe I hadn't heard the whole story. "Okay." I couldn't really say that I understood, either, but no use looking weak.

"Hey. Efdram."

"Yeah," I said tonelessly.

"I...still think you're pretty cool. And, if you wanted to go bowling, I would definitely want to try. You know?"

I sort of did know. "Friends, then?"

"Awesome."


	3. 84

I shoveled more lasagna down. "Yurra gurgur, Karin," I muttered.

"What's that?" Essaw teased.

"Sorry," I burped. "I said, you're a great cook, Katherine."

She blushed. But she really was. Given how Mom and Dad used to drag us to exotic restaurants just so we could taste supposedly cool stuff, I couldn't help but wondering whether, if Essaw had just let them meet her _cooking_ before they met her, things wouldn't have gone differently.

"Thank you," she said. "I suppose it beats the dining hall."

"I live off-campus now," I grinned. "Got my own apartment...do my own cooking...get my roommate to cook for me..."

Essaw laughed, then abruptly sat back. Maybe he was thinking about Mom and Dad, too.

"You know you're always welcome here," said Katherine. "I do love to cook."

"Come on, Katie," said Essaw, "Efdram doesn't want to bother with a couple of old farts."

"Hey," I said. For everything that had happened, he was still my brother—I didn't want to drive a wedge between us, unless he'd made up his mind to pull away. Which he hadn't. Because I was at his apartment.

"Sorry," she said, and I knew she wasn't just apologizing for saying the wrong thing.


	4. 11

We had another discussion about comparative human econ. You know—capitalism, communism, all that. Pretty interesting stuff, and I wanted to go into more detail, but no such luck other than, the teacher hinted, extra research for the final.

After class, Aniss caught up with me. I was kind of ready to pull away and give up on her. But of all things, she apologized! "I'm sorry about last week."

"_You're_ sorry? I was the one being an idiot."

"No, you couldn't have known. Anyway, I didn't mean to blow you off, tell me about your family."

Okay, that was awkward. With anyone else it would be a touchy subject, but I really couldn't complain. "Er, there are my parents," I shrugged. "And I have an older brother."

She gaped. "An _older_ brother? Like how much older?"

"Four years. I know. Crazy old for a CY."

"Was he like, famous as a baby? I've read old news articles."

"Famous as a baby?" I laughed. "I don't think so. It just...kind of sucked for him, being one of the first and not realizing what people expected for him."

"Huh?"

"I mean, they never spelled it out, my parents, so he had no idea they wanted him to marry a nice Yeerkish girl and pass on the family...I don't even know what. They didn't care about the family _name,_ or genes, just like appreciation for senses or whatever. I don't really know what it is, what we have, that makes us any different from normal humans. But when he decided he wanted to marry one—a normal human, I mean—Mom and Dad just tweaked."

She scowled. "Sounds like Beram."

"Who's he?"

"Oh, just another idiot who fell in love with some female all-human."

"Parents take it badly?"

"Parents? I don't think they minded," she said. "But he left one teed-off ex-girlfriend behind."


	5. 54

"Are you…going to leave the apartment in that?" Scott asked.

"Yeah. Unless you'd rather I stay home and code all day. Wouldn't argue too long." At least it was Wednesday and I had classes I actually liked. The bad news was that the first one was at stupid o'clock so I couldn't stay up too late the nights before.

"I mean in those clothes."

"Earthquake weather or something due up? I'm fine."

"Kay. Whatever. Just didn't know that tie-dye went with plaid."

"Says the walking billboard!"

"Just because you can't tell Liverpool from a Yeerk pool doesn't mean some of us don't like to wear jerseys."

"Whatever. Since when have you been Mr. Fashion?"

"Since you decided to be Mr. Neon."

"These aren't that bad."

"Oh, these are the ones your girlfriend picked out for you? Yeah, she's no model herself."

"She's…" What was I supposed to know about what clothes were in for girls? "Not actually my girlfriend, for one thing.

"Whatever."

I wore the tie-dye with the plaid. No one gave me flak for it. Although, I didn't see Aniss, so maybe I should've saved them for a day when we had class together. Didn't matter. I'd have time for that later.


	6. 24

"Efdram, Micus; Micus, Efdram."

"Hey," I said. He looked about a year or two older than us.

"Hi," said Micus, coolly.

"Micus is a very good, longtime, friend of mine—" Aniss began.

"—who will make all sorts of suggestive comments regarding my relationship with her, and you probably shouldn't take them seriously," he cut in. He had a funny accent, couldn't quite place it. "_Probably_. See, that was one to get you started, right."

"Nice to meet you too. I'm...Aniss'...new friend."

"Micus knows how to _bowl_!" she grinned. "So do you want to go like Thursday?"

"Sure," I shrugged, and couldn't help adding, "So you bowl and never take her, huh?"

"Do you take your friends bowling?"

"No," I admitted, "but I drive them everywhere else, I'm the one with the car."

"Great!" he grinned. "Then you can pick me up."

"How far away do you live?"

"Thirty minutes."

"By _car_? Drive your own!"

He laughed. "Kay, whatever."

"Why would you even want to live thirty minutes from campus?"

Aniss opened her mouth, but Micus spoke. "Campus? Dude, I'm a working man."

"Oh. Awesome. Then—"

"That does not mean I pay for your bowling shoes."

I kind of liked the guy. Even if he was going to cost me unnecessary money.


	7. 4

New semester. New classes. Besides my compsci stuff, I had classical mechanics—everyone wanted to take the fancy Z-space junk, but the course evals were pretty sucky.

And then, I had Comp Econ. Arative, alas, not uter, but we needed something for the reej cultural awareness requirement. And I guess I was just sick of my parents getting on my case about stuff. Sure, Essaw's wedding had messed the family up, but I hadn't thought I'd be involved in it. So, I signed up for the most boring-looking thing I could find. Well, not boring, but you know what I mean.

I recognized a couple of people, mostly Scott's IM teammates. And then there was this one girl I couldn't place. But when she raised her hand and gave her name as Aniss Chilioy, I recognized her. I mean, diversity is great, we've got students from all over Earth. But Aniss? Nope, that was a Yeerkish name. Which would explain where I'd seen her. At X-House with Scott. She was the one that could hold her beer.

Someone being a Cultural Yeerk was not in itself reason enough to strike up a conversation with her. Someone being a CY _who hung out in X-House_ was...okay, it wasn't a strike against her. After Essaw and Katherine, writing people off just because they were X-Housers was sort of shooting myself in the foot. And yet, Scott aside, I didn't get along with most of the aliens or alien-wannabes. They just rubbed me the wrong way.

This Aniss, On the other hand, was kind of hot.

"So Scott," I said, that night in my apartment. Even turned away from the screen for him. "Ever meet an...Aniss somebody?"

Course, he'd forgotten her name by then. Just because he's my roommate doesn't mean he's not a total idiot sometimes.


	8. 45

_Author's note: Credit for the word "Visserarchy" goes to Qoheleth, specifically the story Sacred Host (definitely worth a read).  
><em>

"Stupid midterms."

"Did you take tests in high school or what? They're just tests! If you didn't get so worked up about them you'd be fine."

"If you weren't so rational about things we could have fun at this stupid study session," I sighed. "Whatever. What is there to ask us about? Andalite economy is "stay off my grass," Pool Yeerkish economy is "stay out of my host," Hork-Bajir don't count, Taxxon...who gives a rip."

"Well, the prof..."

"Kidding. Work with me here."

"I'm trying to work with you." She scrolled down. "What does Enivier-Chorat-Lesrami think about the role of the Visserarchy in resource distribution?"

"Chorat?" I echoed. "Isn't he the one who goes on about how we can't, like, know anything about other species basically?"

She giggled. "More or less. That it's all like subjective or whatever."

"Andalites are all reejes. They're the ones who invented the stal _morphing cube_ and they claim they can't like know anything about other species cause we're not them?"

"Just idiots like Chorat," she said, "and anyway, if they invented the _morphing cube_ they're clearly not _all reejes_."

"Whatever, whatever. Quiz me on the stal Sheyran already."

"Okay." She scrolled down. "Scholars hypothesize that pre-unification Sheyran economy was most similar to that of which modern species?"

We had definitely not read anything about pre-unification Sheyran economy. But they were just guessing, right? _Pre_-unification...they'd be going around and killing each other all the time..."Yeerks."

"Humans."

"What? No fair! I'm a scholar and I just hypothesized this!"

"Econ scholars."

"I'm scholing econ. That's not even a word, is it?"

"No."

"Whatever. Why humans?"

"Cause they had the different countries or stuff. So tariffs and exchange rates and whatever."

"Reej. Whatever. I'm gonna bomb this anyway so what does it matter."


	9. 117

"Seriously, guys," I said, hauling another box out to the car, "you don't have to stick around. I can drive back."

"Oh, but we want to look at the campus!" Mom said.

"Yeah," Dad echoed.

"I mean, go for it, it's just, _I have a car_, and I'm not a freshman anymore, I can seriously handle myself."

"We're fine," said Dad. "C'mon, he probably just doesn't want us to see all his beer bottles."

"Real mature, Dad," I said, rolling my eyes and pretty much kicking a door open.

"Sure you don't need help?" he said, as I threw the box in.

"Maybe with the doors," I blushed.

"Go on and look around," he nodded to Mom. "We'll be done soon."

And we were done soon. I felt kind of bad for Mom's sake—she'd never really done the college thing. Dad's host had, and apparently the memories of that were enough for him.

As we finished with the last load, the familiar purple Subaru swung by, and Aniss rolled down the passenger window. "Oh hey," I said, trying to sound cool. "Aniss, this is my dad. Dad, this is Aniss, a good friend of mine from Econ." I grimaced to summarize the class.

"Hey, it wasn't that bad," she yelled.

"Aniss?" Dad echoed, shaking her hand warmly. Through the window. Should've known that would happen. Idiot. "Darfen Gonzalez. Very nice to meet you."

"Thanks," she said. "We were gonna offer to move stuff."

"_She_ was," Micus corrected.

"But it looks like you guys are set?"

"Yeah," I yelled before Dad could say anything about how he liked meeting my friends. "Sorry. But I'll come by and visit, right?"

"Call first," said Micus. "I've gotta bunch of business trips and I don't trust Aniss not to forget the combination."

"Sounds good," I said, and they whizzed off.

"Roommates," I curtly explained. "I mean, like, apartmentmates." I'd pretty much accepted that she wasn't into boyfriends, but that didn't mean Dad would believe me. "C'mon, let's go pick up Mom."


	10. 27

Tenth frame. I'd gotten a six and a four, so it was time for the bonus shot. Time to finish strong...

I took two steps forward and let the ball rocket away from me. I stepped backward, backward, never breaking my gaze. So I'm kind of superstitious, but I've gotten lucky before.

Brooklyn strike! Ten more points to finish strong. I'd had the game way in the bag by the sixth frame—Aniss was no competition and Micus, though decent, was getting lucky to break 100.

"All right!" I grinned, turning around to brag in Aniss' face, but she'd left. "Hey, where is she?"

"Went to get more pizza, I think," said Micus.

"Always the pizza with that one," I shook my head. "Can't believe she stays so thin. Anyway, it's you."

"Right, right." He took a shot, just nicking the one on the corner. "Stal." The next one was slightly better, picking up three, but like I said I'd definitely clinched victory.

"Rematch?"

"No."

"Oh, I see how it is. Fine, I'll sit, let Aniss practice with bumpers or whatever."

"We should really head out."

"What's she getting pizza for if you're leaving?" Dumb question. This was Aniss. She never needed a _reason_ for pizza.

"For the road."

Yep. That was our girl.


	11. 42

"So what's your job?" I asked conversationally. Micus had a pretty nice apartment—couple paintings on the walls, a weird glass thing hanging from the ceiling in front of the window, and a huge piano in the room we sat in. If Aniss, who didn't seem to have a part-time job as far as I could tell, was rooming with him, he had to be a pretty nice earner.

"I sweet-talk Skrit Na," he said with an absolutely straight face.

I took that in, and he glanced at me as if to see if I was going to challenge him. Micus could joke when he felt like it, which was usually most of the time, but I thought that might be true. And even if it wasn't, I guessed it wasn't really any of my business.

"Oh hey Efdram!" Aniss walked into the living room. "Glad you could drag yourself away from your computer."

"Hey, I was stalled anyway," I said.

"Oh, I see where we rank," said Aniss.

It really was a _we_ with them. They roomed together, half an hour from campus, so he drove her back and forth each day. I'd volunteered to drive her back up, and sometimes did after long study sessions turned into long hanging-out-and-talking sessions, but usually Micus did himself. If I didn't know any better I'd think they were brother and sister. But despite Micus' incessant teasing, there didn't seem to be any kind of "spark" between them—they never even held hands or whatever.

Which was _perfectly_ fine by me.

"I mean, _you_ rank plenty high," I said, and then pointed at Micus. "It's just throwing in this guy that drags you down."

I was a little scared, but he just grinned. "You're catching on."


	12. 21

"Want me to drive you back?" I offered again. "No homework for me except coding stuff I could...stop looking at me like that. Okay, in my sleep it would come out pretty disastrous, but you know."

"Yeah. Um, I actually have bio now, but thanks."

"Bio? Since when are you in bio?"

"Uh, Wednesday."

"Serious?"

"Yeah. Tried chem but couldn't handle the labs."

"Smell that bad?"

"Yep."

"Ah." So I'd kind of just started walking alongside Aniss. Out of my way, but whatever.

"Best part is, all the bio lab ones seem that...bad, too, so I'm in the lecture session. _Comp_ bio. My favorite."

"Any overlap with econ?"

"Nothing."

"Stal. That's an outrage. You oughta write to the Andalite military. Ask them for some dead Sheyrans to dissect."

"Yeah that'll go over well. _Hello, my name is Aniss and I'm in college..._I just want to study Earth stuff, the biodiversity is pretty much unrivaled, but...okay, no, class is starting right now. So I'll see you around?"

"Okay," I sighed.

She could, I realized later, have been using that as a deke to get me off her case. But she wasn't.


	13. 150

Aniss wasn't what I'd call a good kisser. Not that my sample size was that huge, but all the same, she just kind of sat there, taking it all in rather than...contribute any. Now, I'm not saying I'm that great a kisser either. Maybe we were both kind of made for each other.

So, we just sat there. In her living room. Kissing.

Then Micus walked in.

We both kind of froze. Aniss unfroze first.

"You're...home...early," she squealed.

"Yeah. I am."

No possessive insult for me? I was almost disappointed.

"Look. I don't...need to know what's going on between you two, but just...don't be idiots, okay? Aniss that means you."

"This isn't—" she said. "I mean, we're not in a relationship. Well, no. We're friends. But...we...also, kiss."

"Somehow I'd caught on. Look, Efdram...Aniss is still in a hard place, okay? Don't get your hopes up, if you know what I mean."

"Hello?" she shot back. "I can explain for myself, thanks!"

"Can you?" he said. "How long till you make a mistake?"

"A mistake? Is that what you call this?" I grinned—I hadn't known quite how much I meant to her.

"I don't know what to call it. One kiss here, one kiss there—how many steps until you're another..." he paused.

"Don't you _dare_." She flung herself off of me to stare Micus down. "Just because _you _don't make friends as fast as I do doesn't mean you get to compare me to that _scum_."

"Aniss—" I began.

"I can handle myself," she said. "You should probably go. This could get ugly."

"No, I'll stay with you."

Micus laughed. "She doesn't need protecting. Believe me."

He'd always seemed so humorous before. I wasn't laughing, but at Aniss' glare, did eventually leave.


	14. 82

"What're you doing your paper on?" I asked. At least it wasn't studying for the stupid midterm, but I really needed to stop procrastinating.

"Skrit Na stuff, definitely."

"Oh, Micus knows people, right? Can I just plagiarize off you?"

"How about no."

"Please?"

"No. I take it you don't have any idea?"

"I've narrowed it down, okay?" I snapped. "Nothing that requires me citing Enivier-Chorat-Lesrami! Oh, blah blah blah, species are, like, different and things!"

"And we should get the Hork-Bajir to write stuff for themselves or whatever! Unless they don't want to!"

"Hey, I'd like him if he had actually gotten Hork-Bajir to write stuff. They'd probably be _actually possible to read _for a change."

"That's Chorat." She shook her head. "Maybe he's just being humble?"

"Andalite humility? Yeah, that's gotta be right up there with Hork-Bajir intellect, Taxxon restraint, and Sheyran pacifism."

"Most of the Sheyrans probably _were_ pacifists."

"You idiot, you'd better hope Micus can ghostwrite the stal essay for you."

"I'm serious! They probably _were_ pacifists. That's why the Kelbrid could wipe them out so easily and they never saw it coming."

I sighed. "I've changed my mind. I'm writing a nice Earthbound essay."

"That's not changing your mind, that's making up your mind."

"Okay, shut up."


	15. 62

Scott walked in the door, and glanced at us. "Oh hey!" he said more broadly than he would've if it was just me. "Aniss, right? Uh, yo."

"You already said "hey,"" I pointed out. "Or was the "hey" for me and the "yo" for Aniss?"

"Uh, the "hey" was in general, and the "yo" was for "yo, I need a favor, but if I be nice and say hi to you first, maybe you won't think I'm just a desperate leech.""

"Kinda blew it, man."

"I won't," Aniss called, "you're funny. Ish. I mean, don't think too much of yourself. But, you know, it's a start."

Scott blinked. "Right. Okay. So, did _your_ parents drag you to _Galard_ classes?"

I flinched, but she just said breezily, "Nah."

"Oh. Kay. Never mind."

"I mean, I speak it, kind of. Is this a language question?"

"Yes, it is," I groaned. "_You_ tell him that no one cares whether you can speak _Galard _or not, Andalites can get the chips in their heads anyway."

"Isn't that just for the military?" she asked, while Scott beamed in a _score one_ face.

"Even your fake girlfriend doesn't agree with you when you try to use her against me," he said. "You'd better upgrade to a real one otherwise you'll be all out of luck."

Again, I expected her to take it the wrong way, but she just took it in stride. I guess living with Micus does that to you. "Whatever. What's the question?"

"Okay, I get how the at/et endings switch when the subject is specified or whatever, but how does "shinain" satisfy the conjugation rules?"

"Shinain?" she said. "Maybe my teacher just had a different accent, can I see what you're reading?"

"Sure."

She scrolled up and then shook her head. "I don't care if she was a Seer, you shouldn't read Hork-Bajir translations of _anything_."


	16. 126

I'm good with keyboards, right. Fast finger movement, plenty of stamina, dedication to the black and white flashing in front of me.

Just not, like, piano keyboards.

So I couldn't tell how good Aniss was. Sure, a bunch of people played when they were kids, but I had a feeling very few of them had one in their _college_ apartment. I supposed if she wanted to be a professional, that was one thing.

It felt like she was pretty good, but to be honest, I got sick of having her play so often. Sure, she was into it, but it felt too much like something a boyfriend would put up with for his girlfriend. Did she only want the benefits of a relationship as far as she was concerned?

"I have to go to the bathroom," I said. Which was mostly true.

"Don't use ours," she blurted, freezing in the middle of the song. "There's, like, bugs and stuff. Our reej landlord always says he's gonna get on it, but..."

"Infestation, huh? I hear you."

"You can use the one in the lobby. I don't think they've taken it over...yet."

I went.

They hadn't.

It seemed like a pretty nice bathroom, considering.

"Why do you live here?" I asked, when she let me back in.

"Micus does, and I'm his friend."

"You're my friend, and you don't live with me."

"I'm not your anything."

"Okay, whatever."

"You know what I mean."

I rolled my eyes. She started playing piano again.


	17. 92

I did not like the DJ at all. She was so pepped up she looked like she'd just gotten off the spaceship from a planet with like a thirty-hour day. Earth hours. Except for a small fraction of the Andalite population who could convert like nobody's business, half the galaxy talked about standardization every so often but never got around to it.

Point is, I was not used to being up that late. Where by "up" I meant, rather than "awake," "upright and expected to be conscious of things more than two feet away from me." Where was Aniss, anyway?

Finally, she walked over, grinning and holding one of those beer cups. "How're you doing?"

I shrugged. "It's loud."

"You _reej_, Efdram, I am a horrible influence on you!"

"No you're not," I protested, as she dragged me onto what passed for a dance floor, "if you were we'd do horrible things."

"Yeah. Well. If it hadn't been for me you'd maybe have found someone else by now to do horrible things with instead of acting like you don't know what to do at parties."

"Maybe I would have been happier doing my own thing than pretending I knew what to do at parties."

"Hm," she said. "It's annoying..."

"What is?"

"Never mind." She nodded me aside. "So, you want to kiss, then?"

"Yes," I said promptly.

"This won't make me your girlfriend."

"I know."

"All right." Throwing the arm that wasn't holding the beer around me, she kissed me. And I kissed her back. 

It felt pretty good. A little awkward, and she wasn't a great kisser, but I didn't care.

She eventually came up for air, and a swig of beer.

"I could get used to that," she nodded coolly. "Yeah, let's try that again sometime."


	18. 134

_Knock_.

"Aniss?"

_Knock knock._

"Hey. An-iss."

_Knock knock knock._

"_Micus_? Hey. Hello? Anybody home?"

She wasn't even officially my girlfriend. Didn't that, like, mean she didn't have the right to lock me out because I did something dumb?

"Yo?"

I had the date right, didn't I? Saturday night. We were getting together. At their apartment. I didn't remember whether Micus was even supposed to be there, but she had to know when I was coming. Didn't she?

I picked up my phone and bipped her, but she didn't pick up. As it sat there ringing, she came, panting, from down the hall. "Oh hey. Sorry. Oh, never mind—" she began, catching sight of my phone.

"No, that's all right, I was calling _you_."

"Oh. You been waiting long?"

I hadn't, not really, but I felt kind of annoyed. "Yeah."

"Next time just type in," she nodded. "One thousand, one thousand."

"What?"

"Our code. One zero zero zero, one zero zero zero."

"That's easy," I grinned, following her into the apartment. But then she kissed me and I forgot all about it. The waiting, that is. Not the code.


	19. 46

Aniss slid into the chair next to me. A few more minutes before our prof tried to make the Hork-Bajir economy existent enough to last, like, ninety minutes of him yapping at us. I was dubious.

"You're wearing jean shorts."

"What?" I said. "Yeah. I always wear jean shorts."

"That's my point."

"So you haven't noticed until now?"

"No, it's just—don't you get bored?"

The prof came in. If it was something interesting we'd have typed messages to each other on our laptops instead of taking notes. We'd done that before. Well, I had. She'd actually taken a few notes. But it wasn't, and I'd forgotten it by the end of class. The good news was that there were only ten more minutes of Hork-Bajir stuff, and then we'd moved on to talking about the Am or whoever.

But Aniss hadn't. At the end of the class, as I was packing up, she said, "You should get some other pants sometime."

A couple kids gave us looks. I ignored them.

"No. I mean. Seriously. Different colors or something. Those are just so boring."

"You care about my pants, eh? That's progress."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever."

"If you come pick them out for me. I will get new pants."

"All right!" she grinned. "It's a date."

I blinked.

"Not that kind. But. You know."

I wasn't sure I really knew. But that was Aniss. I would fake my way along anyway.


	20. 6

Aniss seemed to be pretty with it. She was really focused taking notes, it looked like, in class. There was no comparative stuff at all, granted, just basics about how our economy worked. A lot of boring definitions, but I was pretty sure that was fine by me.

Not a lot of opportunity to raise our hands and discuss things, though, so when I tracked her down after class, she did a double-take when I said "Hi, Aniss." At her glance, I rushed in, "I'm Efdram, uh, just remembered your name from the other day."

"Efdram," she smiled. "Cool. Nice to meet you."

"You heading this way?"

"Yeah. Er."

I learned she was a music major and about as excited for the class as I was, it just fit her schedule. That she didn't do any extracurriculars but played music a lot on her own time. That she lived off-campus now, but had grown up an hour or two away from here.

"And what do your parents do?"

She froze up. "They, uh. They died in a car crash when I was little."

"Oh. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. I mean, I, I have to go."

"No, listen, I—"

"No, I understand. But I really need to leave, now."

She tore off down the hall and I leaned against a wall. Great. Less than a week and I'd blown it already.


	21. 73

"Do you ever want to go bowling again?"

"Hmm, probably not."

I blinked. Okay, it was an actual question, but that didn't mean I'd expected her to think about it and answer, at least not "no." "Yes" would've been fine, or "eh, I'm not sure," but that just made it sound like she just didn't want to bowl, ever. "Sorry. Thought you'd enjoyed yourself."

"Oh, I did," she said. "I just don't think I want to do it again."

"Why not?"

"I've already done that. Feel like it'd be silly to do it again, I want to do something else."

"You've already played piano but you play it, like, every day."

"Well, that's different. I want to get really good at playing."

"And some people want to get really good at bowling."

"What for? Just so they can throw a ball down a thing?"

"Look, I—never mind." It wasn't worth arguing about.

"Or do you just want to hang out with me? We should go to the zoo! They've got some new exhibits, I think, I wanna see the cats."

"So you've been to the zoo before but want to go again?"

"Well there are different animals in it, that's what I mean. Or we could see a, I don't know, a play or something. No, never mind, I don't wanna see a play. How about the zoo?"

"Okay," I said. "Whatever. The zoo."


	22. 91

"Hey, so, you want me to drive you to X-House?"

Scott gaped. "Are you kidding?"

"No."

"Oh. Aniss gonna be there?"

"Yes."

"She is the best thing that has ever happened to you."

"How do you know? You've only known me for two-and-a-half years."

"Okay, well, she's one of the best things that's ever happened to _me_."

"You need to raise your standards a little. We don't live that far from X-House, you could walk."

"It's totally on the other side of...well, I shouldn't speak too soon. Do you promise to drive me _back_?"

"How late do those parties go?"

"Depends on whether the police show up."

"To _X_-House? You're lying."

He shrugged. "Come on, I know you have all your computer homework done, and you're probably gonna blow off the rest."

"I don't, and I...um, haven't decided about that part yet."

"You _just_ said you'd finished something."

"Yeah, that was this dumb app."

"Oh my gosh. Look, you're going anyway, and you're not going to be awake enough to do anything else after we get in, so why are we having this conversation."

"Cause you're a moron."

"Okay whatever, I'll come out in an hour. Gonna try faking my way through this reej paper."

"In an _hour_?"

"Yeah, these things are dead at the so-called start time."


	23. 119

"So Dad tells me some of your friends offered to help you move out?"

"Yes," said Dad. "Iniss, was her name?"

"Aniss," I said.

"Oh-h!" said Mom. I have no idea how she manages to put two syllables into words. "She goes to school with you?"

"Yeah," I said. Trust them to ignore Micus. I tried to remember if I'd ever heard whether he actually went to college. If he was two years older than me he could be out of school already and still not as old as Essaw, not old enough to really be news.

"Oh, well, that's very nice."

I wanted to tell her that she'd like Aniss. But what would Mom like about her? Her crazy fashion sense? Her attentiveness in class? Her love of music? Or her sarcastic asides as we wandered farther and farther away from Econ material? Her ability to hold her beer? The nonchalant feel of her lips across mine? I was pretty sure that was not the kind of thing you told your earnest-looking parents about.

I _wanted_ to _tell_ my parents something about Aniss, something that made her her. So they could understand her, like her. But there wasn't any way to do that, because they _already_ liked her, from a offer to help and a name. There was nothing more I could do about it.

It kind of worried me, but what did I care? I was in love.


	24. 165

Today was the day we were supposed to meet up, right? Things had run late, but Aniss seemed to be up for keeping late hours. I hadn't known that, but then again, this late I sort of kept to myself.

It was another normal, if hectic, day. I had my internship at this company that made random junk, car tires or whatever, and had been putting together some code. Went home and hung out with Dad, who was just sitting around. Then Scott bipped me and we kind of got to talking, and by the time that was done, I'd seen a bug in some of the other stuff I'd done. So I fixed it and kind of lost track of time, but then I remembered that I was going to drop by and hang out with Aniss. It was that day. Wasn't it?

So I told Mom and Dad I was heading out, which was a little awkward, because what did they think I was doing this late? (We never did anything more than kissing, this was Aniss and she just didn't...get into...stuff.) But I wasn't sure if they knew that. As long as it was some "Aniss" and not some "Annie" they didn't care, though.

Anyway, traffic sucked, so it was really late by the time I finally got out of the elevator in their apartment. I thought about knocking, but hey, I knew the code, didn't I? One thousand, one thousand.

I opened the door.

And there were Aniss and Micus. Sitting on the couch.

Kissing. Absolutely no doubt about it.

My mouth didn't work enough to scream. I let out a little noise but they didn't hear me. Maybe I should've just slammed the door shut and left.

I stood there, I don't know how long, a whole minute? They weren't taking me in and I was too furious to do anything. It was Micus who said, when he'd finally wrenched his mouth free, "We need to—"

And then she saw me.

My mouth started up again. "WHAT ARE YOU—"

"We were kissing," Aniss said, and Micus seemed to be surprised. I certainly wasn't. "He's not as good a kisser as you are, of course. And he's not my boyfriend either. We just decided to try this sometime." She paused, trying to keep things light. "Does my face look bad from this angle?"

"Aniss," Micus hissed, "we need to—"

"What about you?" I whirled on him. I could almost, _almost_, believe her. But him? "Don't tell me you weren't enjoying it."

"Never said I wasn't," he said, "you heard her, this is—we're not like you two. I've just nev—I wanted to try this too."

"Look, Aniss, I thought we had something."

"We did," she said. "Micus and I just have something else."

"_Aniss_," he said, grabbing her wrist. "_Listen to me._"

"Aniss don't, he's not—" I started

"If you want to be my friend, you need to trust Micus like I do," she said. "Give us a minute."

"A minute?" I said, but before I could answer they'd both sprinted towards the bathroom. Micus had let go of her wrist, but they ran as one, throwing themselves through the door as I followed a step behind. I didn't bother to try the door, they'd have locked it, but what kissing session could _possibly_ be so important they needed to wrap it up out of my view?

I was more or less alone in their apartment. It really wasn't as big as I'd remembered—there was the kitchen, there was the living room, but it felt more like a studio than the luxurious place I had sort of convinced myself Aniss' inheritance had bought her.

A few minutes later, they came out. "Listen, Efdram," Aniss began.

"Yeah, I'm gonna listen all right. I'm gonna listen to you tell me what you're playing at, and, and, and what you're doing in an apartment with a piano _but no bedroom_."


	25. 166

Midnight came and went. I didn't care.

"This is your fault," said Micus.

"Okay," said Aniss, "Okay. Efdram, I've told you all along, ever since Beram left—left me I haven't been really comfortable in a real relationship. And we—we didn't get very far, as far as kissing goes. That's why—well, that's not _why_, but when I'm with you and kissing you and everything, that's a new, and cool, and good thing for me. That, I like doing that, and Micus, he—he's never really had a kissy girlfriend, or boyfriend, either, so, he had seen that we enjoyed it, so he wanted to try."

I just shook my head, addressing him more than her. "What is _wrong_ with you?"

"Nothing is wrong with me," he said coldly, "or Aniss."

"Whatever. And what about this room? Where do you even live?"

"Right here. This is our apartment," said Aniss.

"And you—you don't have a bedroom or anything? Are you..." My mouth just hung open. The only thing I could come up with was "criminals," and maybe Micus was, but I spent too much time with Aniss to believe she could be anything other than a weird, funny, piano obsessee, so the "cr" just hung on my lips.

"You see?" Aniss glared at Micus. "He can't even begin to guess what's going on. Don't worry. We're safe."

Can't even begin to guess...

She'd run to the bathroom, _they'd_ run to the bathroom, without notice, but wouldn't let me use theirs because of bugs or something. Her parents had died before she knew them, yet she spoke _Galard_ well enough to make mine proud. She played music for the joy of sound...and ate anything in sight for the joy of taste.

"You're not _Cultural_ Yeerks," I whispered, "are you."

"If you tell _anyone_," said Micus, "we _will_ know, and you _will_ pay."

"Micus," said Aniss.

"This wasn't supposed to happen. I have to do something."

Yeerks. Yeerks in the flesh. But how was that possible. "So you're my parents' age?" _That_ really felt gross.

"We—" Aniss began.

"Shut up," said Micus.

"I'm not going to tell anyone anything!" I said. Who would I tell? Maybe better to let him know that. "Who would I tell, I don't—" Well, I did _care_. "This is just coming as a shock, that's all."

"We're about your age," said Aniss. "You're twenty?"

"Yeah."

"I'm about seven generations old, Macus is eightish. So yeah. About your age."

"But that means your parents..." Were actual Yeerks. My parents' age. Who had the chance to start new lives, with all their senses intact. And gave it up. "You're not _siblings_, are you?" Sure, slug Yeerks had hundreds at a go, but that still did not erase the recent mental image.

"No," Micus said, as if the idea made him as sick as it made me. Okay. Good. That was something. "Our parents didn't like the idea of going extinct. So they stuck around and had us. And died. End of story."

If I'd been thinking there were so many more questions I could have asked. Not that he would necessarily have answered. "Beram," I realized. "He...was he...your..._third_? The three of you?"

Aniss' face told me all I needed to know. That explained why she and Micus were so close, and yet would have never kissed as humans. I was just another Earth experience for her, another pleasure of the senses.

"I—" Did I wish she'd told me? She never would've, _he_ certainly never would've, and in her own twisted way she'd been honest with me from the start. She didn't want a boyfriend. I should never have gotten my hopes up.

And yet, the pleasure, the joy—

They looked at me as if they had been expecting some other finish to the sentence.

"Never mind," I said, shaking my head, not even mustering up a "goodbye." I left. They kept silent.


	26. 167

"...and I can't tell you who she is. Or anything. I...I feel like I owe her that much, even though she—she did nothing for me, she gave me nothing." No, that wasn't right, and we both knew it. "She, I mean she was nice, she...she was more than nice. She kissed! You have to pick up some human instincts somewhere, I guess.

And I...I almost feel like she doesn't deserve me, and that _really _sucks. I would never have turned into a slug for her, just to breed more baby slugs, even if I could've. But when I hear how serious M—her friend sounds about keeping his species alive, I think it sounds almost noble or, like, whatever. But I don't know, is that her talking? Or Mom and Dad's ideas? I don't—how can I even say I don't know who I am, when it's _her_ I never knew who was, her and him, and...

I don't want to go back there, I don't know what I would do if she came here, I don't, I don't think she wants me if I don't want her, and even though I don't really, I still...

I love her. Even though I don't really want to, even though she doesn't love me, even though she told me all along what this would be, I can't stop it. And I can't—nobody at work I'm close enough to, understands, Scott I'd have to tell the truth to and he'd follow up, Mom and Dad, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know..."

"Efdram."

My brother's face looked out at me from the computer screen.

"Efdram. You heard yourself. You fell in love. That's all. There are worse mistakes."


End file.
